Do you download zines?

I know that downloading and reading a zine on the screen doesn't come even close to receiving a hard-copy in the mail and reading the real thing but sometimes zines in pdf is the only option. Especially for old out-of-print and/or hard to find zines or for people who can't afford ordering (as many) zines (as they would like), especially with the cost of postage these days.

Anyway, do you download and read zines?

I certainly do. In fact every weekend I make a list of zines that were uploaded through the week and post it on my blog. This past week I found 34 zines/publications online! Links to the zines can be found here: Zines to download -weekly roundup- March 7th 2010. 34 zines can definitely keep you busy for a whole week! :)

I've downloaded a few zines, but for some reason I'm still not sure of, reading a zine on screen is just too much work for me. I've tried printing zines at the library, which has high-speed (which I don't), but have run into technical difficulties. I print out blogs and other on-line material at the library pretty easily, take them home and read them, and have enjoyed that. (It's usually just a few dollars, 0-5, for a decent stack of printouts, say 5 to 50 pages, I think about 3 to 4 cents a page.)

Downloading would seem to work well with high-speed internet. How much do you pay for it? The prices I've seen are pretty high----$60 a month. How many zines, and other good things, could you buy with that? Are downloaded zines (etc.) really "free"?

I'm not slamming the practice. If it works for you, great. But so far it hasn't for me. And it's not clear either that it's "free", or even that cheap, once you look into the actual costs

Since I've already got high speed internet, and since I'm going to have it regardless of whether I read zines online, I consider reading them free. (I think our internet only costs $30/month, and that's split between four of us.)

There is something about reading text on a computer screen that makes me sort of buzz through it quickly and want to multi-task. Having a printed zine that I'm reading on a couch or in bed gets more of my attention. I deliberately sit down to read a print zine, but with webzines I'm just kind of browsing.

James N. Dawson said:

I've downloaded a few zines, but for some reason I'm still not sure of, reading a zine on screen is just too much work for me. I've tried printing zines at the library, which has high-speed (which I don't), but have run into technical difficulties. I print out blogs and other on-line material at the library pretty easily, take them home and read them, and have enjoyed that. (It's usually just a few dollars, 0-5, for a decent stack of printouts, say 5 to 50 pages, I think about 3 to 4 cents a page.)

Downloading would seem to work well with high-speed internet. How much do you pay for it? The prices I've seen are pretty high----$60 a month. How many zines, and other good things, could you buy with that? Are downloaded zines (etc.) really "free"?

I'm not slamming the practice. If it works for you, great. But so far it hasn't for me. And it's not clear either that it's "free", or even that cheap, once you look into the actual costs

There is something about reading text on a computer screen that makes me sort of buzz through it quickly and want to multi-task. Having a printed zine that I'm reading on a couch or in bed gets more of my attention. I deliberately sit down to read a print zine, but with webzines I'm just kind of browsing.

Same here. I'm trying more to be open-minded to the electronic/screen reading culture, and I do a little reading on screen, but it's not the focused, absorbed and enjoyed experience that paper reading is. Same with YouTube, which I can only get at the library. For me, reading a book, a zine, a newsletter, printed-out blog, etc., or watching a DVD or videotape, is a very languid experience, very simple, understandable, uncomplicated. (I usually read and watch movies reclining on my bed.) I often feel a vague "tension" in front of a computer, because I've so often been confronted by myriad technical distractions, "locked doors", confusing "no you may not" messages, etc.
Maybe a lot of it has to do with my age, 51. This is just the way I learned to enjoy things, the culture I grew up in. I'm more addicted to the Net than I'd like to admit, and there's a lot of worthwhile things I've discovered. But it's not the same as, or as good as, an experience as reading a book/zine/etc. or watching a movie on a "real" television set, or an old movie theater or drive-in of my childhood & youth.

I'm just relating my own subjective answer to the question, and not trying to dis those who've "bonded" with the Net, as I haven't done. My technology, now quaint and passe, is filled with "meaning", and "memories", but in all fairness, I guess for many who grew up with it, so are computers and the Net.

P.S.---I have no idea how the vertical line got in here making my message part of the quote. I tried to correct it several times. But it's a case in point on how confusing and wearisome trying to wrestle with these machines can be, and how incompetent they make me feel all the time. My old machines don't do that. They're friendly, co-operative, and non-judgemental. They let me read and watch in peace. :)

I do read zines online or download them. In addition, I upload them to QZAP, the Queer Zine Archive Project.

I love having zines in my hand, as a physical object to cherish or give away. I also recognize that zines have content that is important to someone. Maybe it's just the creator, or maybe it's a lifeline to some queer kid or punk kid in the middle of nowhere or in the middle of a major city who feels isolated or confused or is just looking for something to do. By scanning and preserving zines and putting them online, we're able to get them to transcend borders. It could be social, or political, or geographic... but by providing access we're able to help folks see a new perspective, or learn a skill, or glimpse history that's only being written by those of us who make zines in the first place.

I recognize that different sites have different standards and methodologies when it comes to putting zines online. At QZAP we've got our own:
1) Zines get scanned at 150ppi or higher - this makes them "print ready", and we preserve this through the PDF making process.
2) We paginate them so that they (mostly) read one page at a time. We don't upload flats "as is" because of copyright/Fair Use issues. We've got a whole web page on the site talking about this.
3) We make them into PDF files because they're the most portable (hence the name). Most computer platforms (Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Solaris, etc.) have free PDF readers. PDFs can also be transfered to devices like iPhones, Android phones, eReaders like the Kindle, etc. PDF files are also MUCH smaller than the original graphic files, and we're able to put all the pages of a zine into one file (as opposed to Page1.jpg, Page2.jpg, etc.)
4) We also test our site as a whole in a number of browsers, and through various connection speeds... it's not always perfect, but we try to keep it as light as possible (i.e. no Flash) to make it as accessible as possible.

I know that not everyone likes reading zines on a screen, but as a means of preserving and disseminating the contents, it's pretty good. We keyword every zine, and include author credits, city of origin, year, length in pages and language. We do all of that by hand, BTW.

Personally, at the end of the day, I like having zines as digital files on my phone or laptop, but I also like being able to pull out a stapled packet of paper and kick back an read. Either way, I <3 zines, and think that they're important artifacts to hold and preserve.

i download a lot of zines and chapbooks but find i dont get around to reading them as much as i do a paperzine. when i get a zine in the mail i'll read and re-read it again and again but on the screen i just dont do that. i like being able to take a zine w/me (sit in the sunny window, on public transport, on the crapper!) - cant do that with my computer. that said though i do find it handy for zines that i prob wont find any other way but still being an old fart i do have a preference for the paperzine.

I download zines from the internet, as well as magazines and other reading material. It's convenient for me since, being disabled, it can be tricky for me to go to physical places and usually I can't even spare the $1-2 to get them in the mail. The zine I make is also an online zine- I want to start making print versions eventually, but frankly I don't have a printer to print out collage materials and doing it on my laptop just works easier for me.

Again, not to object to on-line zines or anybody enjoying them, but is a "view" a "read"? I go through the Net often and "view" web pages, but I seldom read them. The most I usually do is "skim". I've written many long comments on forums, and I believe they've gotten quite a few "views", but I don't know if I got much feedback from them compared to letters to my zines. But it's always possible I'm being unfairly biased toward zines, since I haven't really counted responses to zines versus Net writings.

Adam Sever said:

As someone who posts PDFs of my zines and downloads others, I gotta say that I'd much prefer paper ones. The few I have downloaded, I've set up as a booklet and printed them out cause its easier to read them on paper.

The last print zine I made had nearly 900 views online. There is no way I could've reached that many people by just offering print zines, with the cost of printing and postage. Some zines translate well into an online version and some are made only to be on paper.